Penn State Proud
Ron Clifton's Bowling Tip Archive
Other than my Black Widow Bite, the Wicked Siege is probably my only new/high performance ball bought in the past few years. Mostly I use a lot of older equipment. I maintain everything - clean and refresh surfaces regularly; but I really haven't had to worry much about oil absorption. Powerkoil 18 and Superflex weren't designed with oil absorption in mind.
Anyway, I noticed lately that my Wicked Siege wasn't acting the same. Both the mid lane read and back end reaction were somewhat spotty. The PBA patterns really need the ball to read the pattern correctly, but even on my house shot, it kind of labored like the surface was too shiny. I first refreshed the surface to 2000 abralon where I prefer it. Another week of Cheetah and a house shot had similar results. The ball had 60-70 games of league play and another 20-30 of practice. 100 games is pretty typical for a ball to lose some punch, so a de-oiling was probably in order.
I did the hot water bucket method first. After several cycles and never really seeing any obvious oil, I ran it through the dishwasher (no heat dry cycle) while the ball was still hot to reduce any thermal shock. I prefer the dishwasher because it has given me the best results in the past. I had a Tsunami that seemed dead after the hot water bucket that was great after the dishwasher. Anyway, after cleaning and drying for 24 hours, it was ready for it's test. My only attempt so far was one night of Cheetah. Based on that, it looks like the same ball as new. My house shot league is tomorrow, so I'll update after that as well.
The "bad" news is that it soaks up a fair amount of oil after 100 games. I guess that's a necessary sin for modern equipment. The good news is that it looks like I was able to fully restore it with minimal effort. Brunswick balls have always had a good reputation for restoring to like new conditions and it looks like the Wicked Siege continues that tradition.
Penn State Proud
Ron Clifton's Bowling Tip Archive
Strider,
I noticed less of a reaction downlane after 2 months of using the wicked siege as well. I had my pro shop guy put it in the rejuvinator, and it reacted just like a brand new ball. I would suggest having the oil "baked" out of it after 60 games or so. The few dollars that it costs to have the oil extracted is defintially worth it. Just my 2¢
Brunswick Advisory Staff
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer and not of Brunswick Corporation